A journeyman for most of his career, Heredia finally blossomed into a reliable starter when he posted 13 wins for the A's in 1999. His breakthrough season was aided by a June tutoring session with Catfish Hunter (nearly paralyzed with Lou Gehrig's Disease) who told Heredia to simply throw strikes and have fun. Although he turned 34 that October, Heredia set a new personal best the following season with 15 victories, eleven on the road.
Because his fastball topped out in the 80 MPH range, Heredia never overpowered batters. Instead, he relied on a wide variety of pitches to keep them off balance, prompting reliever T.J. Mathews and announcer Ken Korach to dub him "Doctor Gil". (JGR)
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FROM THE BASEBALL CHRONOLOGY
»May 17, 1996:
Manny Ramirez hits a grand slam, off Gil Heredia (1–3), as the Indians score six runs in the 7th inning to outslug the Rangers, 12–10. Cleveland's Eddie Murray and Texas SS Kevin Elster each have four hits: Elster has two homers and two doubles to drive in and score four runs. Murray's two RBI moves him into 10th place on the all-time list with 1,840.
»June 18, 2000:
The A's tie a team record as they run over the Royals, 21-3, scoring 10 runs in the 3rd inning. The A's scored 21 runs on June 14, 1969 against Boston. Every Oakland starters gets at least one hit, one RBI, and one run scored. Gil Heredia is an easy winner over Jeff D'Amico, making his first ML start.
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